Watercooler Stories

CARSON CITY, Nev., Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Officials in Carson City, Nev., have declared a California woman the rightful owner of $7.4 million in gold coins found in the home of her late cousin.

City Clerk-Recorder Alan Glover said a month's worth of genealogical research determined Arlene Magdon, a first cousin to the late Walter Samasko Jr., was the only living relative of the man, who died in May, the Las Vegas Sun reported Thursday.

Glover said the money is likely to be released around the middle of 2013.

Samasko was discovered to have been keeping the 2,695 gold coins, some of which dated back to the 1880s, in boxes in his garage.

Glover said other parties attempting to claim the coins included a Florida man who said he was secret agent who suffered a head injury and only recently remembered he was related to Samasko.

Speed camera tickets stopped car

BALTIMORE, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- A Baltimore man who was cited by a speed camera for driving 38 mph in a 25 mph zone said his car is clearly motionless in pictures and video footage.

Daniel Doty said the speed camera image with his $40 ticket from April 24 depicts his four-door Mazda wagon stopped at a red right with the brake lights illuminated and a three-second video clip offered as evidence also shows the vehicle was not moving, The Baltimore Sun reported Thursday.

Doty said he was amazed at the ticket being issued when it was "shockingly obvious" his vehicle was stationary. He is scheduled to appear in court Friday to challenge the ticket.

"It was like someone was so obviously asleep at the switch," he said Wednesday. "I thought that was not supposed to happen."

Xerox State and Local Solutions, the speed camera contractor, said the camera footage goes through two stages of review before being sent to police for a final review before the citation is issued.

The Marion County Sheriff's Office said the victim told deputies she left her Reddick home around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday and she arrived home at 6 p.m. to discover the pavers making up the driveway were missing, the Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner reported Thursday.

A witness told deputies two men, a heavyset black male and a smaller white male, were seen digging up the pavers, but it did not seen suspicious because workers have recently been seen working on a barn on the woman's property.

The suspects drove a black pickup truck with a flatbed utility trailer.

Woman gets stuck in trash chute

MAGNITOGORSK, Russia, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Emergency responders in Russia said a 20-year-old woman clad only in a T-shirt became stuck in a trash chute while attempting to retrieve a bag of cosmetics.

Crews were called Wednesday night to a building in the city of Magnitogorsk when a voice was heard calling for help from the trash cute. Responders said they discovered the woman, wearing only a T-shirt, had lost her balance and fell in while attempting to retrieve a bag of cosmetics she had accidentally thrown away, RIA Novosti reported Thursday.

"The rescue workers had to cut the chute away with a blow-torch in a service area ... so they could pull her out by hand," an emergency services representative said.

Medics determined the woman was not seriously injured and responders said the woman was able to locate her bag of cosmetics and return home once she was freed.

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